Acts of kindness

February 2020

 Feb.17 is 'National Random Acts of Kindness Day' so we asked our writers
to write about those who have inspired us to be better, kinder
versions of ourselves through their acts of kindness.

Group effort

Emmy Jansen
Class of 2023

To choose just one person who has inspired me to be a better, kinder version of myself is an impossible task. I’ve stolen bits and pieces of my personality and ethic from every individual I encounter. In some way or another, every person I have met has been an inspiration for me. Whether I passed them once on the street or lived with them for my entire childhood, all of them have impacted me, and I can’t put a number on the value or amount of wisdom each has given me.

I don’t know if it’s possible to have only one inspiration. Humans are fallible creatures, as well as unique individuals. We are inspired by their words, actions, or beliefs, but we look past their flaws, idiosyncrasies, and quirks- as we should. But maybe it is those things, the less desirable aspects that each of us have, that are our inspiration. Ignoring these flaws can perpetrate them more but using them as inspiration of what to avoid can be just as impactful as those who inspire us by being good examples.

Up until freshman year of high school, I dreamed of being a teacher. When I sat at my desk in classes, I picked up on the traits each teacher had and made mental notes of what I would do instead when I finally had my own classroom. This information is somewhat useless now, as I no longer plan on pursuing education, but these observations served as steppingstones into making me into a better teacher. Maybe I didn’t like the way a teacher reprimanded a student or how they were too unorganized for my Type A brain. Or, it was the way they motivated even the laziest student to care about the topic. And how much energy and effort they put into making each lesson enjoyable.

I had the advantage of being the fourth of five kids growing up. It is with love that I say their trials and tribulations served as inspirations for me as well, mostly of what not to do. But I respect their decisions and I know how lucky I am to have had examples, good and bad, that I could look to for guidance growing up. Whether they know it or not, I am who I am in part because of them. From the start of elementary school through eighth grade, I was always in one of their shadows. With three older siblings, there was always a teacher who had already experienced a member of my family, which changed their perception of me. However, in high school, I was in a new school with a new community. My last name was insignificant, and I was no longer part of a set. Even with no formal guidance given, I know I still looked to my siblings and their experiences as I paved my own path through those four years.

Even in college I find myself looking back and reflecting on the lives of my family members. My roommate and I would sit around our dorm wondering, what were our parents like when they were in college? What would my older sister be doing right now? Because at this point in my life, the roadmap is less clear. The road signs are jumbled up and at times, I’m flying blind. During high school, everything was laid out in terms of what had to be done and what was yet to come. Adulthood has proved to be less organized. But my Type A brain is okay with this, and I’ve enjoyed truly blazing my own trail. My life is still an accumulation of those around me, but it is more mine than it has ever been. These adventures, and misadventures, have only one owner, despite the hundreds of inspirations they’ve had.

We discussed in one of my classes here how it isn’t just the people or events in our life that impact us, but the things that happened before we took our first breath. For example, there may be a correlation between our birth story and an aspect of our lives. Maybe you were born two weeks late, so you’re more relaxed when it comes to time and care more about the quality of it rather than the quantity. If you were induced, maybe you’re always looking for that extra push to accomplish tasks. My mom wasn’t supposed to be able to have kids after my older brother, which I guess makes my sister and I sort of miracles. I think this has ingrained some sort of need for me to prove my existence, to prove that my life has meaning and purpose. The miracle wasn’t wasted on me. That might be why I pushed myself so hard in high school, and continue to do so in college, to be successful both in school and in the community. This is one thing that sets me apart from my older siblings, which I attribute to our different births. So, I can’t only list people as my inspirations, since there are factors that aren’t human that have made me who I am today.

I think we’ve forgotten the significance of the word kindness. It is the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate. We all probably started 2020 with big dreams of what we would become, what adjective we were striving to reach. We want to be prettier, stronger, healthier, and happier. How many of us have ever looked in the mirror and said we wanted to be kinder? I think that is what sets ordinary people apart from the extraordinary, those that top the list of inspirations across the globe. Malala Yousafzai, Martin Luther King Jr., Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa. They didn’t make it their goal to be the best, stronger, prettiest. But they chose kindness, practically every time. Yes, hit the gym and read those books that you told yourself you were going to finish by 2021. But take time to look at those around you, evaluate your actions, and reflect. You can’t measure the amount of kindness in a person like you can measure weight on a scale. I think the only way to quantify it is to see who lists you as their inspiration. Who would say you inspired them to be better, kinder version of themselves?

I could’ve written something cheesy about how my parents inspired me to be loyal to those around me or how my friends teach me how to slow down and enjoy the little moments. All these things are true, of course, but it would be an injustice to the hundreds of inspirations in my life that have made me the woman I am today if I minimized my life to merely one individual. Maybe I spend too long with my nose in books, idealizing life and the symbolism of every event. Maybe I love people too much. But I am not ashamed to not have one person who has made me a better, kinder version of myself. This version was a group project.

Read other articles by Emmy Jansen

Our treasure in clay

Harry Scherer
Class of 2022

"Nothing ever happens in the world that does not happen first inside human hearts," said Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. The prominent prelate proclaimed these truthful words on one of his Life is Worth Living telecasts entitled "War as a Judgment of God". Providing clarity, comfort and an assurance that what is being spoken is evidently true, Bishop Sheen used the television media and his unquestionable gift of properly using the English language to spread the Gospel in a manner that was both pedagogically prudent and intellectually stimulating.

To even the unobservant reader of this column, my admiration of Bishop Sheen should be apparent. Whether his writings, sermons and speeches have made me a "kinder and better person" is not necessarily for me to judge. If I am a "kinder and better person" than I was a few years ago, then it is due in some part to this faithful shepherd.

This shining star for the Catholic Church in America, and for those around the world who were quick enough to recognize his brilliance, was born in 1895 in El Paso, Illinois, about a half-hour drive from Peoria, IL where he spent most of his years of adolescence. Sheen was ordained by his Bishop Dunne in 1919 and consecrated bishop by Cardinal Piazza in 1951 on the Memorial of St. Barnabas the Apostle. The feast of Barnabas, a martyr by stoning in the early Church, was an appropriate day for the consecration of the patient bishop as a sign of the white martyrdom that he would endure in the later years of his episcopate.

He started off his career as "the first televangelist" in radio as the host of The Catholic Hour. He then moved on to television as the host of Life is Worth Living and beat out the ratings of Milton Berle and climbed to the top of the charts. A people craving for truth in charity, families welcomed the humble bishop into their living rooms after their Sunday dinners and silently wondered at both the truths that were being professed and the soul-deep conviction with which the vessel proclaimed them. Sheen himself described the metaphor of his identity as a Treasure in Clay, the title of his autobiography, as a suitable way to describe his individual vocation and that of the priest in general. A humble and meek man to the core, he reminded us of the fact that Christ uses imperfect vessels to spread His perfect Word, as is evident in His divine condescension at His Nativity in a cold manger.

This love for the Alpha and the Omega who became man for our sake was made clear in the breadth and depth of his intellectual contribution to the Church and the world. His weekly telecast would breach topics ranging from "Science, Relativity and the Atomic Bomb" to "The Psychology of the Irish" to "Pain and Suffering." Bishop Sheen never shied away from controversy but embraced controversial topics because he sensed that it was these issues that the devil employs for the spread of hateful and fearful ideology, made evident in his outward revulsion toward the Communist political scheme. The single continuity in the bishop’s thoughts from the inner tendencies of the human spirit to the configuration of vast international systems was what made his writings so tantalizing. He would connect the unconnectable and use his knowledge of human and salvation history to draw parallels between phenomena which no thinker of his time could attempt. There is a certain comfort in reading and listening to a man who was so well-formed in the classical tradition and talked to parents and children and university students like he was their peer.

In addition to his prolific writings and telecasts, Sheen was also fearless with regard to proudly defending the Church’s understanding of the political and social life of her members. He made the encyclicals of Leo XIII and Pius XI on the Church’s teaching on fair labor practices and the proper relationship between employers and employees accessible to the common man. In that way, he tore the veil that can sometimes create a disconnect between the intellectual and ministerial life of the episcopate and presbyterate and the life of everyday virtue of the laity. Bishop Sheen was a priest through and through. It seems to me that the reason that he was able to live out this vocation that put an indelible mark on his soul and ontologically changed him was because he understood and lived the universal call to holiness that applies to everyone in the Church.

Bishop Sheen looked at those he loved, everyone, through the lens of Christ gazing at his Mother, His beloved apostle and the penitent Magdalene at the foot of the Cross. The holy bishop loved his flock with the heart of Christ and suffered for them in imitation of the sufferings which Christ bore for the Church. As a contrast to the accidental fame that he acquired by means of properly using his talents, he was the subject of ecclesial envy, even from superiors. He bore the humiliation of being reassigned to what was described as "ecclesiastical Siberia" in the Diocese of Rochester. Families followed him to learn more from his down-to-earth wisdom about the nature of spiritual, political and social matters. What distinguished Bishop Sheen from some of his peers in the episcopal order was his filial piety to his one true love, the Church, and a seemingly embedded knowledge that all that happened to him on this earth was the will of God, either active or permissive.

Bishop Sheen was a model for all Christians and all persons of good will to live out their human and individual natures for the greater glory of God. An indomitable force of prayer and love, he taught us how to be human and how to be like Christ. May he rest in peace, may his cause for canonization be swift and may even more come to know the love of Our Lord through the clay of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen.

In his own words, "bye and God love you!"

Read other articles by Harry Scherer

Choose to be kind

Angela Guiao
Class of 2021

I’ve always envied those who were kind by nature. The kind of people who you knew you could trust the moment you meet them. The person who has that aura, you know which one I mean: the warm one, the welcoming one, the one that makes you feel at ease and lower your guard. I’ve never been that kind of person. I was always a little rough around the edges; the kind of person you needed to warm up to. The person you were unsure of in the beginning but gradually began to like after a few times hanging out.

When I was younger, I was very shy. I spent a lot of time not really saying anything or doing anything that would bring any type of attention to me. I was a bit of a wallflower, to be honest. And on the very rare occasion that I did say something, it was always the wrong thing to say at the worst possible time.

It wasn’t until the beginning of my freshman year here at the Mount that I decided I wanted to change. And I didn’t want to change because I wanted to fit in or anything like that, but rather because I was simply unhappy with the way I was. Being shy, people tend to forget you are there. Or they realized you are there and just don’t really care. And I witnessed a lot of bad. There was a lot of bullying, of trash-talking, of condescendence. There was a lot of animosity between people, groups of people, and all around just a lot of hate.

And to be honest, at one point I became indifferent to it. I began to agree with the hate, agree with the bullies, agree with mean and nasty people, meaning that as a result, I was mean and nasty myself. And I don’t know why I agreed, and I don’t know how I became indifferent, but I do know that at one point I was not happy with the way I was.

It wasn’t until I came to the Mount and was suddenly surrounded by these cheerful, happy students who said hello to whomever passed by, asked how your day was, and had nothing but good things to say to people did I realize just how bad I’ve gotten.

So, in the end, I guess what I am trying to say is that I’ve learned how to be kind from those who were not. I learned what I should not be doing, how I should not treat people, what I should not say. And it was by not doing these things that I learned how I could be a good person.

Kindness, in my opinion, requires a great deal of self-reflection. But it also a requires an even greater deal of awareness. How does a person react when you say something? Do they smile or do they frown? Have you embarrassed them or have you got them talking about something they are passionate about? How do you feel about their reaction?

I feel like kindness is a choice. Granted, there are people who are naturally kind, but I believe even the nastiest person can be kind, if he really wanted to be. It all starts with how we feel. You see, I believe that to be kind, we must truly care about the person we are dealing with or just care in general. For example, I believe Mother Theresa truly cared for those who were in need. And as a result, she was kind because kindness is a product of caring. Kindness, as an act, affects mostly who you are being kind to. It affects the recipient because it is overall good, positive, and dare I say, right.

Now, I know a bunch of you are thinking about that handful of people who are kind for their own gain. The kind of people who use kindness as a sort of façade. The ones who are kind because there are aware that someone is watching. You know, the common argument that nothing is really a selfless act because we will always gain from doing good? It basically means that although we are performing acts of kindness towards others, we are still in some way gaining because of how good we feel or how positively other people’s perception of us becomes because of our acts of kindness.

And to that I can only answer: what is wrong with that? What is so wrong about being filled with positivity and happy feelings and transforming into a good person, personally and in other’s perceptions after performing an act of kindness? Is it wrong to gain? Does helping others mean that they cannot in some small way help us in return? Even if it only means that we get to feel good about ourselves for a few, insignificant minutes? Does enjoying those few minutes mean we are selfish? Because I don’t think so. I think that if we can throw positivity around, good deeds around, happiness around, we should.

I believe in karma, and that includes good karma. I believe that what goes around comes around whether that be hatred or happiness. I believe we should be kind to others, because we all want people to be kind to us! And I believe that no one gets hurt from being kind.

I am junior now here at the Mount, and I can say that I am happier with myself today than I was when I was a freshman. And that’s because I took the time to step back and take a look at how I was as a person. Then after realizing I wasn’t happy with who I was, I decided to do something about it. People will say that I am doing this for selfish reasons. But I think that kindness is not selfish. Kindness is good. Kindness helps others and helps those who are being kind.

I think the world can be more kind.

If only we would take kindness out of context, and reflect on it for what it is, we will realize that kindness is good. No matter what, no matter who or what it affects, no matter the reason why, kindness is good. The impact of kindness is good. So, I hope this year, and for every year to come, we choose to be kind.

Read other articles by Angela Guiao

The little things

Morgan Rooney
Class of 2020

When I look at where I am today, as hard as I have worked and as much effort as I have put into my achievements, it would be wrong for me to only credit myself. Considering where I am now, I am not yet in a place where I would say that ‘I made it," but I feel like I am getting very close. The ‘it’ in that statement would refer to a point where I feel like I’ve hit a milestone that would be difficult to turn back from. My days as an undergraduate will soon be in the double digits. The intimidating thought of finding a ‘real job’ is becoming more imminent, while also more terrifying. The degree will soon be in my hand and I need to figure out what to do with it.

I’m definitely extremely fortunate that I have been able to attend Mount St. Mary’s University for the last three and a half years. I am well aware that many others do not have the same opportunities that I do. Without my friends and family, I wouldn’t have made it this far. I don’t know where I would be, but it certainly wouldn’t be here, sitting at my computer, writing for the Emmitsburg News-Journal. It would be impossible for me to pick only one person who encouraged me to keep going because that would take up much more than this page.

My gratefulness isn’t just limited to when I was 17 and my family was helping me pick out a school that would be most well suited for me. It stems from countless rides to and from the airport, a little bit of extra grocery or gas money, and the occasional home cooked meal that I am invited to at my aunt and uncle’s houses. I’m grateful for the friends that I’ve made that kept me from feeling like I was all alone. I’m grateful for the lengthy phone calls that I have multiple times a week to keep close to those I care about most. Without any of this, my challenges would be much greater, and the outcome less.

When I get my degree in the upcoming months, I will not fail to recognize that it was not just me who earned it, but those who helped me along the way as well. Any small (or large) act of kindness pushed me to work hard and wrap everything up. When celebrating, I want everyone to share the same pride that I have.

Thinking back through my life, I could think of countless kind things people have done. When I was a small child, I had so much family and many family friends give me wonderful gifts and make wonderful gestures. They continue to do this as I get older and I am and will always be grateful for the love that they are spreading. These things always inspire me to be better, not just when others are watching, but when I am in the eyes of God alone. Alike many others, I have times where the day just isn’t going my way and the world feels like it’s going to come to an end. I have moments where I feel the need to overreact and get angry. Thinking of all those people in my life who have done such wonderful things without expecting anything in return help me to look at my situation from a different perspective.

Sometimes it only takes one good thing to happen to make someone’s day better. When I get something for free, see a family member, or win a raffle, my day instantly turns around even if it wasn’t going my way previously. The influence we can make on someone’s day is surprising. Sometimes a simple smile is all that’s needed to turn someone’s day around. We must always remind ourselves that we don’t know what others are going through. Although everyone we see seems like a regular, ordinary person on the outside, there is a complex story behind each person with challenges often as great as our own.

When I was about 16, I worked at a small café near my house. I would work every weekend and spend many hours on my feet with little time for breaks. When the time finally came where I could sit down and have some lunch, I was exhausted. Every Sunday, however, a retired couple would come in with their friends on their way back from church. As I would eat my discounted lunch, the husband would come talk to me for a while and pay for my lunch. He did this almost every Sunday so my food wouldn’t be taken out of my paycheck each week. This gesture would always make my day. Seeing people like this in the café made my weekend job so much more fulfilling. Nothing makes me feel warmer than knowing someone cares.

When I was in high school, I had a friend who worked at Whataburger, a fast food chain based in Texas. She told me that one day a man pulled up in the drive through and purchased a meal. This man also told her that he would like to pay for the meal of the customer who was in the car behind him. When she approached the window and learned that her food had been paid for, she decided to pay for the customer in the car behind her. My friend said that this continued through 12 different customers before someone broke the chain. The first man who paid for another email sparked many others to pay it forward. I would say that kindness is contagious and if more people were like this man, I think many of the world’s problems would be eradicated.

Before it was recently brought to my attention, I did not realize that there was a day dedicated to acts of kindness. On Feb. 17, I will be sure to keep this in mind. It doesn’t have to be something big. It just needs to be something that shows that you care and to remind someone that there still is and will always be some good in the world.

Read other articles by Morgan Rooney

Read Past Editions of Four Years at the Mount